The battle at Waterloo marked the final end of Napoleon’s reign in France and, according to Andrew Roberts, the logical end of the eighteenth century. Wellington’s victory effectively signaled the end of France as a first-rank military power and the beginning of England’s imperial rise.

Roberts sets three goals for himself in this little volume: to explain the importance of the battle by setting it in its historical context, to narrate the action in and around the battle, and to survey some of the larger historiographic questions posed by the battle’s participants and researchers.

Setting the battle in its context is a tricky task. How much eighteenth-century political and military history needs to be retold for the average intended reader? Given the small size of his work, his outline of the political context is respectable; the salient facts are all presented. It seems to me, however, that the volume would benefit from a few extra pages outlining military tactics, weapons, and terminology. Roberts uses terminology likely to be unfamiliar to the average reader: chasseurs, heavy and light cavalry, grenadier. A brief explanation would have been helpful to me! On the other hand, Roberts does a great job explaining the military square and some of the complexities of getting infantry, cavalry, and artillery to work together. He also provides helpful reminders about the state of communications, the speed of travel, and some of the difficulties the British commands experienced trying to communicate with their Prussian allies.

Roberts’ battle narratives are quite thrilling. Following previous accounts, he divides the battle into five phases, each of which is well distinguished from the others. He provides a nice mix of first-hand memories from the soldiers themselves with his own narrative. He describes in brief but essential detail the topography of the battlefield, the few crucial buildings involved, the mud resulting from the torrents of June 17, and the corn that impeded travel and provided hiding spots. There are inevitably a lot names—people, places, military divisions—but Roberts’ narrative seems to handle them all with a certain ease.

Concerning the historiographic questions, Roberts seems fairly objective when there are well supported arguments on either side of a question. I’m not well versed in the literature, but I got the impression that he tended to take the British side in those cases where the French and British historiographies are at odds. Nonetheless, I got some inkling of the open or divisive questions concerning Waterloo.

Finally, I think the editors could have done a better job providing maps appropriate to the text. Roberts makes repeated mention of some places like Mons that do not show up on either of the included maps. At the same time, the appendices include a few letters by Wellington and others that provide interesting first-hand accounts of the day.

In all, this is very well paced and easy-to-read account of a crucial turning point in European history.